EarlyTerminationFee.me – Know When Your Contact Changes

We are soft launching a new site, EarlyTerminationFee.me, today, and we’re only publicizing it (today) around our circle of PhoneNews.com readers. We’ll hold larger launch festivities soon, but we’d like you to try it out and get the ball rolling. Help spread the word!

In a nutshell, the carriers have all agreed to let you out of your wireless service contract, if they make material changes. What defines a material change is often debated. Sometimes honorably, sometimes dishonorably. But, in short, if a carrier changes your contract, they have to let you out.

What we do at EarlyTerminationFee.me, is let you know when your carrier does make a material change, or a change that we view is material, to your contract.

Most people are unaware that their contract has been changed, until it is way, way too late.

How it Works

Details are on the site, but it’s pretty simple. You give us your email address, tell us what carrier(s) you have, and we tell you when your contract has a material change.

Generally, you have between 14 and 30 days from when you get a bill notifying you, to call in and opt-out of the contract changes. Usually, the only way to opt out, is to port out to another wireless provider.

We promise not to spam you. When we inform you of a contract change, we may also inform you of other options worthy of taking a look at. But, we promise never to sell your email address. It won’t leave our company’s servers.

Our Company & Why We’re Doing this

We created Mobile Media Ventures to empower consumers with projects large and small. PhoneNews.com certainly has been a large undertaking, one we’re looking to double down on. But, we realize some projects should be independent from. In short, this one we feel is something that the entire industry should embrace, free from the partisanship of media favoritism.

EarlyTerminationFee.me is one of those sites that we feel compelled to make. It’s the right thing to do. Customers should be informed when their contract changes, in an in-your-face manner. Are we likely to lose advertisers over it? Yes. Are we likely to be locked out of some interviews? Happens to us all the time, already. We aren’t afraid of that, because someone had to do it. We’re the ones doing it.

What’s Next

We don’t like the state of wireless discussion forums. We had one for years, and we weren’t happy with the software, the layout, or the quality of the dialogue.

We have a new one that we’re building. We promise to stand up to the manufacturers on important topics, like hosting firmware… and hopefully, work with handset manufacturers to empower consumers. We believe it’s a good thing to have not just an ecosystem where you can unlock your bootloader, but translate that into something that’s actually meaningful to the consumer.

Now that EarlyTerminationFee.me is out the door, that’s what I’ll be focusing a large chunk of my time on. But, we’re not done yet. After a week of early access, we’ll be beating the drums and spreading the word about how we’ve leveled the playing field on ETFs.

So please, sign up, sound off, and let us know what you think!

Thanks to everyone that wrote to me, during my absense. I’m back, and I read each and every one of your letters.

Christopher Price is the Founding Editor of PhoneNews.com. Today, he leads the team building iConsole.tv - a new kind of Android™ device. He still likes to pontificate... a lot. You can visit his personal blog at ChristopherPrice.net.

That said, our next site will have the goal of working with manufacturers, not against them. We hosted firmware (for hundreds of phones), for the better part of a decade in a positive relationship with handset manufacturers, on the Phone Encyclopedia.

As the Phone Encyclopedia aged, we decided it needed a replacement. That replacement will be launched soon.

Ok I’m a Verizon customer and they sent notices of an increase of the Federal Universal Fee dated 19 SEP 2012. This allowed me to get out of my contract and purchase an iPhone 5. WITHOUT AN ETF! And they bought back my other Galaxy S3 for $97

Everyone has until 18 OCT 2012 to act upon this Material change of the contract. Act fast or be put of luck! i REALLY hope your site is more on top of this next time!!! Because this FED UNIVERSAL FEE affects EVERY CARRIER IN THE USA. Only some 290,000,000 people with phones!

Even if you just started this so recently you should have been on top of it!